Pop singer/songwriter Phoebe Holiday Ryan combines the effervescence of Carly Rae Jepsen and coolness of Tove Lo with a sharp attention to pop hooks like contemporaries Daya and Chvrches. Born in Dallas, Texas, Ryan was raised in oceanside Rumson, New Jersey where she was in a Grateful Dead cover band in high school. However, her own music is a sharp detour from the likes of Garcia and company. Honing her craft at Clive Davis' Institute of Recorded Music at New York University, she graduated in 2013 and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a joint songwriting and solo career. Her earliest work included songwriting for a diverse mix of artists like Oh Honey, Tritonal, Skizzy Mars, Bea Miller, and Melanie Martinez. Eventually, she would pen a track for Britney Spears (2016's Glory track "Man on the Moon"). In 2015, she released a cover mash-up of R. Kelly's "Ignition" with Miguel's "Do You." That track would appear on her debut EP Mine. She signed with Columbia Records and in 2016, released the single "Chronic" (the same day that song was released, "Chronic" remixers the Knocks released an album that featured Ryan's vocals on the track "Purple Eyes"). Another single, "Dollar Bill" featuring rapper Kid Ink, arrived months later, with the hook-laden "Dark Side" dropping in early 2017. A handful of singles including the Blackbear-assisted "Forgetting All About You" led up to the release of Ryan's second EP, James, in October of that year. ~ Neil Z. Yeung